Friday, May 27, 2005

A Time Warp and Black Hole rolled into one

Like many collectors I like to read about comics almost as much as reading comics themselves, so I was always interested in fanzines and the likes. I had the opportunity to purchase a rather large stack (over 50 magazines) of both Alter Ego and Comic Book Artist and sniped both auctions like a madman.Once I won them and they were winging their way to me in a nice roomy M-bag I started wondering if I would even like them. You see I'd never read, or even seen a copy of either magazine, but I was told by my peers that both were excellent publications and were a comic-geek's wet dream come true.Now you have to understand that Wizard is not your typical comics magazine (please re-read the prior sentence and then at least pretend to agree). It's just the most popular, most widely available and most well-known. You know than 1/8 of a page Wizard sometimes devotes to a Silver Age or Golden Age creator (when discussing a new HOT comic)...well Alter Ego is 60 pages of that.

60 Pages of pure nostalgia and in-dept interviews... hardly any articles or even mentions of comics post 1985 and all in glorious black and white. Focusing on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art.I consider myself to be quite the speed reader, most comics don't last longer than 7 minutes in my greedy little hands, but these magazines are something else. I've been averaging 5-7 hours per magazine...it's ludicrous, I haven't read a single comic in the past 2 weeks, just 3 issues of Alter Ego and 3 Comic Book Artists (more on that in the next blog-entry)

Issue #2 had an 11-page interview with Stan Lee focusing on Marvel in the 70's...and only that was discussed...11 pages long...and it was interesting...and I was sorry it was over so soon.

Man I love these mags, and recommend them to any fan of the medium who's interested in comics from the 40's through to the 80's. I fancied myself the real comic connoisseur, but after reading these treasures I'm reminded of how little I really know